Ethiopia has so much to offer - bustling city life, diverse culture, delicious food and a fantastic mix of landscapes including beautiful lakes, grassy savannas, dry deserts, stunning mountains and unique wildlife. Unfortunately, some places can be quite complicated to reach without owning a car or joining a tour - especially when traveling alone on a limited budget!
Although it's usually possible to catch a ride by minibus(es), this requires a bit of planning and a lot of patience, particularly for far-away
destinations. Flying with Ethiopian Airlines tends to be the speediest
option but tickets are rather pricey, especially if booked
last-minute. Luckily, there are also couple of reasonable bus companies taking
passengers to the main cities of the country: Selam and Skybus. When
Pepe and I suddenly both had a few days off at the same time, we decided to take a fairly spontaneous trip outside of the
capital and so checked out the different routes available. We ended up choosing
Hawassa, capital of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region!
After waiting for the delayed bus under a small tree at Meskel Square with all the other passengers due to a sudden torrential downpour, we eventually got on our way to Hawassa. The five-hour journey from Addis was surprisingly enjoyable with comfortable seats, free water and cake, a movie (in Amharic, still entertaining though) and truly breathtaking views. In fact, staring out of the window already made the whole trip worth it for me. We eventually arrived after sunset and found a decent place to stay, waking up the next morning ready to explore a new part of Ethiopia. The main attraction is Lake Awassa, one of Ethiopia's Rift Valley lakes and incredibly picturesque. The lake is also teeming with bird life, including some absolutely massive (and not so shy) Marabou storks! We might have been the over-excited tourists taking more than a few photos of a single bird at the top of a tree, only to walk past dozens of them at close range a few minutes later... Not that we usually blend in the crowd in Addis anyway, but with only one full day in Hawassa we had to make the most of it! We ended up spending our short stay walking around the city, hanging out with the lazy hippos and enjoying cold beers and fresh fish on the banks of the lake. Absolutely loved it :)
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| Bus tickets for Emam and Szczepam - close enough. |
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| These storks are huge! |
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| Happy on our boat tour searching for birds and hippos |
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| Lake Awassa |
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| A lone stork (many trees were completely filled with birds though!) |
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| Shy hippo! |
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| Pelican and local fisherman |
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| Dinner is served! |
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| Sunset at the lake |
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